Indian muntjac
| Indian muntjac | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Indian muntjak ( Muntiacus muntjak ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Muntiacus muntjac | ||||||||||||
| ( Zimmermann , 1780) |
The Indian muntjak ( Muntiacus muntjak ) is a medium-sized species from the deer family . It occurs in large parts of South and Southeast Asia, including numerous islands in Indonesia.
features
The head-trunk length of the Indian muntjak is 98 to 120 centimeters, the tail length 17 to 20 centimeters. The shoulder height is 50 to 72 centimeters, the females are slightly smaller than the males; In addition, the subspecies vary in size and color. The weight of the individual animals is 17 to 40 kilograms. The animals are medium-sized with long, slender legs. They have a red-brown and short fur, which is white on the lower abdomen, and the tail is also red-brown on top and white on the underside. There is no dark stripe down from the neck, which distinguishes the species from other species such as the Chinese muntjac ( Muntiacus reevesi ). The front legs have black spots that can vary greatly in their expression between the different subspecies.
Skull features
| 0 | · | 1 | · | 3 | · | 3 | = 34 |
| 3 | · | 1 | · | 3 | · | 3 |
The skull has a total length of 176 to 200 millimeters. Like all muntjac has the kind maxillary per half a canine (canine), three Vorbackenzähne (Praemolares) and three molars (molars), incisors are missing. In the lower jaw, the species also has three incisors in each half. The animals have a total of 34 teeth.
The males' antlers have two ends and are only about 15 centimeters long. They also have two small, dagger-like tusks that are created by the lower canine teeth growing out of the lower jaw. The females' tusks are slightly shorter.
Genetic traits
The genome of the Indian muntjak consists of a very small number of chromosomes : the males have a diploid chromosome set of 2n = 7 chromosomes, while the females have 2n = 6 or 2n = 8. For comparison, the Chinese muntjac has 2n = 46 chromosomes.
distribution
The Indian muntjac occurs in India , Nepal , China , Bangladesh , the rest of Southeast Asia as well as on Sri Lanka and the great Sunda Islands .
Way of life
The Indian muntjac lives in dense forests, hilly landscapes and mountains up to an altitude of 4000 meters, provided it has enough cover and food such as grass, leaves, fruits and shoots of young trees. In Great Britain and France he lives in larger landscape parks. The animals are strictly territorial and usually live alone or in pairs. The males mark their territory with a secretion that is secreted from glands on the chin. The animals are mostly nocturnal. Their natural enemies include tigers and leopards .
Reproduction
The gestation period of the females is approx. 6 months, after which the females usually give birth to a young, twin births are rare. The young animals are suckled for 4–5 months and are already independent after a further month.
Systematics
The Indian muntjac is classified as an independent species within the muntjaks (genus Muntiacus ), which consists of eleven species. The first scientific description comes from Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann from 1780, he named the Indian muntjak as Cervus muntjak .
Within the species, in addition to the nominate form Muntiacus muntjak muntjak, up to 10 other subspecies were sometimes distinguished:
- Muntiacus muntjak muntjac
- Muntiacus muntjak annamensis
- Muntiacus muntjak aureus
- Muntiacus muntjak curvostylis
- Muntiacus muntjak guangdongensis
- Muntiacus muntjak malabaricus
- Muntiacus muntjak menglalis
- Muntiacus muntjak montanus
- Muntiacus muntjak nigripes
- Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis
- Muntiacus muntjak yunnanensis
Already in 2003 Colin Peter Groves had considered the animals from the South and Southeast Asian mainland part of the distribution area as a separate species, the North Indian muntjak ( Muntiacus vaginalis ), and separated from the Muntiacus muntjak, which is restricted to the Malay Peninsula and the Sunda Islands . Among other things, differences in the karyotype and color variations spoke in favor of the split . He assigned three subspecies to the North Indian muntjac: M. v. vaginalis from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and western Myanmar , M. v. aureus from the central Indian area of the Deccan and M. v. malabaricus from Sri-Lanka and the Western Ghats (a fourth subspecies with M. v. curvostylis occurs in the rest of the Southeast Asian mainland and in southwest China, Groves only treated the animals of South Asia in 2003). Groves suspected a third independent species, characterized by black legs, on the island of Hainan . Various authors and institutions adopted this division into two types, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), while others stayed with the old structure. In a revision of the deer in 2011, Groves, in collaboration with Peter Grubb, raised some of the representatives he had previously postulated as subspecies to the status of species, namely the Central Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus aureus ) and the Malabar muntjac ( Muntiacus malabaricus ), as well as the black foot -Muntjac ( Muntiacus nigripes ; northern Vietnam and Hainan). The authors gave two subspecies for the North Indian muntjac: M. v. vaginalis and M. v. curvostylis .
|
Classification of the reddish muntjacs according to Martins et al. 2017 based on genetic data
|
Molecular genetic studies from 2017 can reconstruct a total of three monophyletic lines within the Indian muntjak in the broader sense . One includes animals from Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats, the second those from mainland South and Southeast Asia, and the third from the Malay Peninsula and the Sunda Islands. Individual subgroups can be distinguished within the three lines, for example from northern India or from southern China and northern Vietnam. The three main lines correspond to the Isthmus of Kra and the central Indian dry region as biogeographical barriers. The splitting of the three clades took place in the early Pleistocene about 1.5 to 1.1 million years ago and began with the formation of the Sri Lanka / West Ghat line, which was possibly controlled by climatic fluctuations during the Pleistocene. The authors of the study left it open as to whether the three clades are to be regarded as subspecies or as species, since further genetic studies are necessary for a higher resolution.
Hazard and protection
The species is not endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) due to its large distribution area in Asia and the assumed population size as well as the very good adaptability to habitat changes caused by logging and the conversion of forests into agricultural areas (" least concern ”). Above all due to the deforestation and clearing of forests, the population numbers are increasing regionally and the capacities of the habitat, especially in highly fragmented areas, are not exhausted.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e John MacKinnon: Red Muntjak. In: Andrew T. Smith, Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; Pp. 464-465. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- ↑ John MacKinnon: Reeve's Muntjak. In: Andrew T. Smith, Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; P. 465. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- ↑ a b c Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.): Muntiacus muntjak . in Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed).
- ↑ Eberhard August Zimmermann: Geographical history of humans, and the generally common four-footed animals. Second volume. Contains a complete list of all known quadrupeds. Leipzig, 1780, pp. 1–276 (p. 131) ( [1] )
- ^ Colin Peter Groves: Taxonomy of ungulates of the Indian subcontinent. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 100 (2-3), 2003, pp. 341-361
- ↑ Muntiacus vaginalis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by:. RJ Timmins, JW Duckworth, A. Pattanavibool, R. Steinmetz, N. Samba Kumar, Md Anwarul Islam, H. Sagar Baral, 2008. Retrieved on 26 . June 2013.
- ↑ a b c Muntiacus muntjak in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: RJ Timmins, JW Duckworth, S. Hedges, A. Pattanavibool, R. Steinmetz, G. Semiadi, M. Tyson, Boeadi, 2008. Accessed on June 26, 2013.
- ^ S. Mattioli: Family Cervidae (Deer). In: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2: Hooved Mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-96553-77-4 , pp. 350–443 (pp. 409–412)
- ↑ Colin Groves and Peter Grubb: Ungulate Taxonomy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 1–317 (SS 71–107)
- ↑ a b Renata F. Martins, Jörns Fickel, Minh Le, Thanh van Nguyen, Ha M. Nguyen, Robert Timmins, Han Ming Gan, Jeffrine J. Rovie-Ryan, Dorina Lenz, Daniel W. Förster and Andreas Wilting: Phylogeography of red muntjacs reveals three distinct mitochondrial lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology 17, 2017, p 34 doi: 10.1186 / s12862-017-0888-0
literature
- John MacKinnon: Red Muntjac. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; Pp. 464-465. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- Renata F. Martins, Jörns Fickel, Minh Le, Thanh van Nguyen, Ha M. Nguyen, Robert Timmins, Han Ming Gan, Jeffrine J. Rovie-Ryan, Dorina Lenz, Daniel W. Förster and Andreas Wilting: Phylogeography of red muntjacs reveals three distinct mitochondrial lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology 17, 2017, p 34 doi: 10.1186 / s12862-017-0888-0
- S. Mattioli: Family Cervidae (Deer). In: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2: Hooved Mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-96553-77-4 , pp. 350–443 (pp. 409–412)
Web links
- Muntiacus muntjak in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: RJ Timmins, JW Duckworth, S. Hedges, A. Pattanavibool, R. Steinmetz, G. Semiadi, M. Tyson, Boeadi, 2008. Accessed June 26 2013.